M3GAN 2.0
The rogue sentient doll is back in an unnecessarily convoluted sequel.
Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures.
Talk about timely. A shady department of the US government launches a high-tech killing machine on Iran to neutralise an illicit weapons facility. But far from being bunker-busting GBU-57 bombs, this kitten is an advanced AI robot constructed from stolen blueprints of M3GAN (pronounced Megan). After the latter tried to kill its designer, Gemma Forrester (Allison Williams), with a tablet pen, M3GAN was disabled by having a screwdriver driven into an exposed processing chip in her head. But then M3GAN, the movie, grossed $181.8 million – on a budget of $12m.
Welcome to M3GAN 2.0. With the same writer-director and producers returning for duty, M3GAN 2.0 retains the same playful irreverence of the first film, although it’s actually more of an action-comedy than a slice of sci-fi horror. It’s just a shame that M3GAN, who has been rebuilt in order to take down her doppelganger in Iran, isn’t given more screen time, as her Bette Davis-like interjection of “hold onto your vaginas!” and inappropriate references to “yeast infections” certainly elevates the mood. She’s such a doll.
Her doppelganger is AMELIA (standing for ‘autonomous military engagement logistics and infiltration android’), dished up as a computer programmer’s wet dream, erotically tapping into the Terminatorage. In fact, there’s way too much tapping into other well-oiled sci-fi romps and by the third act, M3GAN 2.0 really does feel like used goods. In fact, it was only last week that an aunt found herself looking after her sibling’s child following the death of its parents in a car accident (in Elio). But here Gemma’s maternal instincts really kick in, when her twelve-year-old niece Cady becomes so much collateral damage. But Cady (Violet McGraw) does have more agency this time round, revealing a penchant for Steven Seagal (she has a poster of the guy in her school locker) and an ability to hold her own with a dash of Aikido. And the film’s warnings of too much digital distraction for minors is welcome, distilled in Gemma’s latest book, ‘Modern Moderation.’ Gemma also gets to assert the film’s strongest moral view when, standing up for humanity, she says, “our greatest power is our ability to change our mind.”
Where M3GAN 2.0 really finds its own voice is when it goes entirely off-piste, both with a disco dance sequence and even a musical number when our anti-heroine breaks into song (Kate Bush’s ‘This Woman’s Work’). We really needed more of this. Sadly, though, too many good ideas are diluted by too much action and more U-turns than a Keir Starmer premiership. For a Blumhouse production, there’s not much gore and the violence is fleeting and the language relatively decorous, which would explain the PG-13 rating in the US. Quite why it’s got a 15 in the UK is baffling, particularly as the far more disturbing Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was given a 12A, while the horrifying 28 Years Later got away with a 15.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Amie Donald, Aristotle Athari, Timm Sharp, Jenna Davis, Ivanna Sakhno, Jemaine Clement.
Dir Gerard Johnstone, Pro Jason Blum, James Wan and Allison Williams, Ex Pro Judson Scott, Mark David Katchur, Michael Clear, Adam Hendricks, Greg Gilreath and Gerard Johnstone, Screenplay Gerard Johnstone, Ph Toby Oliver, Pro Des Brendan Heffernan and Adam Wheatley, Ed Jeff McEvoy, Music Chris Bacon, Costumes Jeriana San Juan, Sound P.K. Hooker and Andrew Twite.
Blumhouse Productions/Atomic Monster-Universal Pictures.
119 mins. USA/New Zealand/Canada. 2025. UK and US Rel: 27 June 2025. Cert. 15/PG-13.
